Tag Archives: Labour rights

As someone who used a video camera to document testimonies, I found myself in possession of unique material and needed to tell the story of the events I had witnessed – a story that would otherwise have been suppressed. Bonita: Ugly Bananas is the story of banana workers who stood up to Ecuador’s most powerful oligarch and the price they paid for their actions.

When Scottish artist, Jan Nimmo, travels to Ecuador, the world’s largest exporter of bananas, to gather workers’ testimonies, she observes the formation of the first trade unions in the banana sector for 30 years. The Los Alamos banana workers decide to go on strike for the most basic of rights. But the company which owns the plantation, Bonita Brands, is owned by Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador’s richest man and serial presidential candidate. Alvaro Noboa doesn’t like unions. Bonita is the world’s fourth largest banana company yet the workers earn a pittance, are exposed to a cocktail of toxic agrochemicals and their living conditions are appalling. Bonita is a powerful eyewitness account of what happens to workers who dare to stand up against a powerful oligarch…..